Vance Reno

Vance Reno (died 11 December 1868) was an American outlaw of the Midwest during the late 19th century and the leader of the Reno Gang.

Civil War career
Vance Reno was born in Texas, the brother of Ray Reno, Brett Reno, and Clint Reno. Vance, Ray, and Brett went to join the Confederate States Army in Louisiana during the American Civil War, and they served as cavalry raiders in Randall's Cavalry Brigade. On 10 April 1865, the Reno brothers and their gang of robbers attacked a Union payroll train at Greenwood, Louisiana, killing several people at the station and stealing their uniforms. They succeeded in taking the payroll before their identities were discovered, and they fled; Vance was wounded in the chest by a bullet. Reno would find out from some unarmed Confederate soldiers that the war had ended four days before with Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, and the Reno brothers discussed what they should do with the money. Vance decided to split it evenly among the members of the group, and the brothers returned home. However, he found out that everyone in their hometown believed that he had died in the war, and he found out that Clint had married Vance's fiancee Cathy three months earlier. Vance accepted this, ignoring Cathy's attempts to seduce him once more.

Reno Gang
Vance and his brothers agreed to keep their money secret, only to be accosted by government officials led by a Mr. Siringo at a county fair a few weeks later. Siringo informed them that they were to be arrested and taken to a courthouse, where the paymaster of the train would identify them as the robbers; the brothers denied involvement. During the train ride, Reno acknowledged that there was a robbery, but that Mike Gavin and the other robbers were nowhere to be found; Siringo told him that he would let the brothers go if all of the money was recovered. Shortly after, Clint Reno, Gavin, and two other Confederates held up the train and freed Vance, escaping. The government ordered their troops to shoot on sight, and the criminals went on the run. Vance announced his intention to turn himself in, hoping that Siringo's offer was still valid. He headed to Gavin and Clint to convince them to join him, but Gavin told Clint to shoot him, fearing that he had brought the lawmen with him. Clint and Gavin both shot him in the arm, wounding him; Clint would later show remorse and shoot at Gavin and his men when they tried to loot the wounded Reno's money, and they shot Clint dead. The lawmen arrived and arrested the three ex-Confederates shortly after, and the surviving three Reno brothers were set free.

Over the following years, the Reno brothers would return to crime, carrying out train robberies in Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. In 1868, they were captured by lawmen and were sent to a jail in Seymour, Indiana; Vance had been captured while trying to flee to British Canada. On 11 December 1868, the brothers were kidnapped from their prison by masked vigilantes and lynched outside.